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The Good War? The United States in World War II

Module description

This module will introduce you to a wide variety of primary sources which all deal with aspects of American society in World War II. The aim is to give an impression of the wide range of material available to historians of the twentieth century and what these sources can tell you about the past. The primary focus of this module is on developing your ability to interpret primary sources and members of class will be asked to do a close reading of a different set of sources each week. In addition, the module will also help further your understanding of the impact the Second World War had – and still has – on American society.

Module aims - intentions of the module

The Second World War is still regarded as “the Good War” by many Americans. In the popular imagination the first half of the 1940s was a period when country was united in a morally superior cause against evil foes who were subsequently defeated and transformed into model democracies and allies. Although historians have increasingly challenged this version of events the controversy around the Smithsonian’s “Enola Gay” exhibition in the 1990s and the conservative backlash against “revisionist” historians show that the Good War paradigm is still very popular.

This module will test the “Good War” thesis by focusing on how different groups in the United States experienced the Second World War and how their experience was represented or left out after the fighting had ended. This will be done with the help of a wide variety of different sources, such as travel accounts, court cases, letters, opinion polls, sociological studies, oral history interviews, memorials, movies, posters and newspaper advertisements.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Understand and assess simplistic interpretations of American society during the Second World War and realise the diversity of the war experience according to age, gender, race, class and occupation
• 2. Work critically with a wide range of written and visual sources for American history in the 1940s

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Identify the problems of using historical sources, e.g. utility, limitations, etc., and compare the validity of different types of sources
• 4. Present historical arguments and answer questions orally

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. Conduct independent study and group work, including the presentation of material for group discussion, developed through the mode of learning
• 6. Digest, select and organise material to produce, to a deadline, a coherent and cogent argument, developed through the mode of assessment
• 7. Write to a tight word-limit

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

A wide variety of primary sources will be used to explore how Americans experienced the Second World War. You will be asked to study a propaganda film, travel account, U.S. Supreme Court cases, a sociological survey, an army memorandum and letters, oral history interviews, posters, advertisements, journal articles and memorials. Through these sources the module will address themes such as civil liberties, gender and race relations, wartime propaganda, the atomic bombs as well as how the war served as a reference point in American culture and politics after 1945.

The first seminar will consist of a short lecture which will provide a framework for the topics of the following weeks. After that you will be divided into groups. In Week 2 we will watch a movie and discuss it in class. Starting in Week 3 you will be asked to hand in source commentaries on the primary sources listed in this handbook (i.e. assignment one should be completed for the class in Week 3, assignment two for the class in Week 4 and so on). For your weekly assignments, you have to answer all questions listed in this handbook for the respective week. All assignments will count for your overall mark.

Each week one group will make a 20-25 minutes presentation in class based on that week’s assignment. All members of the group should participate in the presentation and contribute to it in equal manner. The rest of the class will then get together in their groups to determine for about ten minutes two questions to ask the presenting group. These questions will then be asked and answered, with discussions being allowed to develop on key points. In the light of the discussion and my comments, you will then self-assess your own work according to the pro-forma which will then be collected by me together with your essays for moderation.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Adams, Michael C.C., The Best War Ever: America and World War II (Johns Hopkins UP, 1994). 
• Brinkley, David, Washington Goes to War: The Extraordinary Story of the Transformation of a City and a Nation (Ballantine, 1988). 
• Cooke, Alistair, The American Home Front: 1941-1942 (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006). 
• Jeffries, John W., Wartime America: The World War II Home Front (Van R. Dee, 1997). 
• Lingeman, Richard R., Don’t You Know there’s a War on? The American Home Front, 1941-1945 (Nation Books, 2003).
• Rose, Kenneth D., Myth and the Great Generation: A Social History of Americans in World War II (Routledge, 2008).

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE – https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=11943

Key words search

World War II, African-American History, Race, American Society, Home Front, Social History, Cultural History, The ‘Good War’, Political History.